Ethics Assault in the Legislature

Led by Senator Joan Huffman, the conferees considering SB 219, the Ethics Commission Sunset legislation, cut out major provisions of the reform bill that had been added in the House earlier in the week by huge margins.

“Behind closed doors the conferees mounted a strategic assault on transparency,” said Craig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice. “The stage was set to make significant progress on ethics and open-government reform. The true nature of the politicians reared its head at the last minute. Politicians can’t be trusted to clean-up politics.”

Lobby Watch: Will Perry Veto Lobby Disclosure?

Texas lawmakers passed a measure requiring lobbyists to disclose payments that they receive from political campaigns. This disclosure bill will become law unless it is vetoed by a governor whose campaign has paid lobbyists and lobby firms more than $650,000 in recent years.

Lobby Watch examines Governor Perry's lobby ties and flags some potentially gaping loopholes in the proposed disclosure bill for campaign payments to lobbyists.

Lobby Watch: Tax-Break Recipients Give Combs $238,500

Corporate recipients of $1.2 billion in property-tax breaks contributed $238,500 to Comptroller Susan Combs, who vets the controversial tax-abatement program.

Lobby Watch reveals who's playing to not be paying for public education.

Lobby Watch: Eighty-Two Payday Lobbyists Out to Kill Reforms

Twenty-four predatory lenders are paying 82 lobbyists up to $4.4 million to kill a bill to impose consumer protections on payday and auto-title loans. A tenth of the industry's lobbyists are former Texas lawmakers. Georgia-based auto-title lender Rod Aycox is the biggest lobby spender in Texas, which let lenders repossess the vehicles of 35,000 Texans last year.

Details in the new Lobby Watch.

Lobby Watch: Predatory-Loan Bill Lands in Mortgaged House

The Senate passed surprisingly tough predatory-loan reforms that now must run a savage gauntlet through the House. Since 2009 the industry has given $1.4 million to current House members. Meanwhile, Speaker Joe Straus pocketed ten cents of every political dollar that the industry has spent statewide.

Read the details in Lobby Watch.

Lobby Watch: 12 Republicans Flip From Lege to Lobby

A dozen recent members of the Texas Legislature already are reporting up to $2 million in lobby income this session. The 12 revolving-door lawmakers left office with $2.4 million in left-over campaign funds, which they can legally use to buy influence with state officials. Many new revolvers are hustling for the very interests that they regulated. Predatory lenders and education interests rank high on their client lists.

A new Lobby Watch reveals who sold out--for what.

Stop putting it off -- pass real ethics reform. Guest Editorial by Craig McDonald

Ethics sunset bills pending in the legislature do little to clean up Texas' ethical swamp.

Read the opinion piece published in the Austin American-Statesman.

Lobby Watch: Combs Reaps Thousands from Event Fund Grantees

Contributors tied to $57 million in grants from the state's Events Trust Funds gave $421,000 to fund overseer Susan Combs since the 2006 cycle, when she won her first Comptroller race. Formula 1 related donors chip in $116,000.

Read the new Lobby Watch.

Lobby Watch: Big 3 Bag Millions from TEF Recipients

The three GOP officials who oversee the Texas Enterprise Fund have collected $3.6 million in campaign cash tied to recipients of $307 million in Enterprise Fund awards. The Republican Party of Texas collected another $1.7 million from Enterprise Fund contributors.

Lobby Watch explores how the taxpayer-funded Enterprise Fund protects the three most important jobs in Texas.

Lobby Watch: Payday-Funded Pols Push Tepid Loan Reforms

Predatory lenders invested almost $4 million in Texas politicians since 2009, seriously constraining what--if anything--will be done about the runaway industry's exploitation of the neediest Texans.

Loan sharks doubled their spending on Texas elections from 2008 to 2012. It's all revealed in tawdry detail in TPJ's new Lobby Watch.